Review and Conclusion

Please as final event activity complete this survey so we can gauge your thoughts, feelings and also how much your have learnt about social media, We hope you have enjoyed the experience and that you have gained some useful knowledge and skills for classroom applications.

As part of this event we invited current teachers to respond to some questions about their experiences with social media. The aim of this was to gauge the current thoughts of teachers on social media, if it is being used and how. Unfortunately we only had one response below.

How do you define social media? What types do you know of? Please list.

Social media includes the various online technology tools that enable people to communicate easily via the internet to share information and resources.

Facebook

Twitter

Youtube

Edstudio

Blackboard

Distribution list (HOC – C2C network)

2.Please rate your current knowledge of social media-

10 fully up to date with social media

3. What types of social media do you use in your personal life? Please list.

I only use facebook in my personal life.

4. Do you use social media in your professional life? For example for your personal learning network? If so, what types? Please list.

In my professional career I only use the Distribution list (HOC – C2C network) which allows teachers, HOCs, HODs, deputies and principals to communicate and share resources.

5. Do you or have you used social media in your classroom?

In previous years I have use blackboards and learning places in my classrooms. It really depends on the school and access to technology. We have access to you tube videos for different curriculum areas.

6. What types and how did you use it? For example played YouTube video on topic.

Blackboards

I used blackboards as a place for students to meet online and share resources, discuss topics and access information that was shown in class. It was that had multiple purposes. A lot of the students used it to gain access to information they had missed if they were away.

YouTube

I use YouTube as a resource which allows me to show students concepts that I usually wouldn’t be able to show or explain to them. It has been most beneficial in science because it gives you access to demonstrations that you could not usually do because of resources, risk assessment or even time.

7. Is your school pro social media? If yes, please briefly explain what types are used and how. If no, please state main concerns.

It depends on the definition of pro social media. My school does not allow Facebook during school hours. They are pro social media more in regards to access the learning place which is an education Queensland run website.

8. Do you personally as a professional think social media, such as Twitter, blogs, wiki, YouTube, Flickr etc are appropriate to be used in the classroom?

Personally I think that some social media is more hassle than it is worth. Considering how much dramas Facebook can cause in a classroom I don’t think it should be used.

Scott Fields Woodcrest State College Year 6

How Teachers are using Social Media Right Now. How will you use Social Media?

As part of this learning event the organisers have too been on a learning journey. We have cried, screamed and well I have to be honest had tantrums over not being able to ‘get’ these Information Communication Technologies. It is a steep learning curve and whilst I have failed at a few things I, for one, have learnt through the creation of my Twitter page, to create a Twitter account, tweet, use Twitterfall, create a story using social media, create a Twiducate account and use it to show others the way it can be in a classroom. I have also through creating and collaborating in this blog learnt to make videos using xtranormal, upload to Youtube, to embed various links, and videos into the pages. I have also gained knowledge and understanding of wiki’s and blogs. All of which I had not known prior to this event. I have also learnt to collaborate with others successfully on a unique learning journey.

It is a learning journey on reflection I have enjoyed (well mostly) because I have gone out of my comfort zone and into a place where I would find many of the students I would be teaching in the future. In a world where ICT’s are not feared but viewed as amazing and new ways to do things. I hope too that you have had a journey that has expanded your knowledge and understanding.

I will leave you with these last words

Tell me…I will forget

Show me….I may remember

Involve me…I will understand

Confucius

Michelle Irving

Hello Again,

I hope you have learnt many a new thing from our blog, I for one have, especially all the educational applications Twitter can generate, who would have thought. As the person responsible for the creation of the blog and the setting up of the blog, my first advice to anyone attempting to implement a blog in their classroom, is become intimate with the blog site you are going to use. As that way you will be able to troubleshoot any problems your students may come across in their class or individual blogs. I have never blogged before, either operating one or responding to post, so this experience was, also like Michelle, a huge learning curve for myself, but one I take away with a positive feeingl. Through my research I have gained a further understanding and appreciation of the effective ways in which blogs can enhance my classroom practice, I hope you all come away from our event with the same thoughts.

Kaaren

Well, at the end of this learning experience I can certainly say that I have learnt many new skills and developed new attitudes to social media as a whole. Whilst researching I have learnt how to expand my twitter account and have become an active member. Previously I was only “stalking” a few of my favourite people! I have discovered a rich and never ending resource and have tweeted resources to other members for the blog. I have found that there is so much information in the social media world, that the top skill you need to develop is to be selective and regimented. Allow a limited amount of time to review tweets, blogs, wikis and YouTube or you can be swallowed up into the ether of the online world.

As a group we have participated in a social constructivist style of learning experience. We have utilised facebook, twitter and the blog itself to assist each other with the skills required to complete specific activities; we have shared resources we have found on YouTube, and other online sources and edited documents collaboratively, creating a true community of learning.

As I have researched wikis, I have developed more respect for them than I previously held. As Wikipedia is the most well known and obvious wiki, I had “tarred them all the with same brush” and viewed them as unreliable sources of information. A place to begin a journey when researching a topic, but one that was not suitable to be taken at face value, (or to good enough to be reference material!). I viewed all wikis with this narrow style of definition and I have found that there is so much more to them. Previously I had created a wiki for another subject, but had not been able to connect that particular assignment to ways in which I could utilise a wiki myself in my own classroom. Now however, as a pedagogical tool I can see so many applications for them, especially for small group, paired or whole class collaborative work. I can imagine students logging in from home to review what once may have been on a Word Wall poster, or a specific vocabulary list for a Science, Maths or English Unit. I can envision them researching a History topic and creating fact files, links to resources – things I would previously have had them participate in as a handwritten individual journal entry. They definitely have their place in the social constructivist classroom!

I can say with certainty that whilst this was initially a foreboding task that I was not at all looking forward to, I have been proven wrong. It has been an enriching experience (wow – an assignment that has been truly engaging, informative and which has changed my attitude!). I hope that you explore these pages and that you also find within them something that you can utilise in your own teaching practices. Hoping that you too have had a learning experience whilst engaging in our activities.

Cheers, Christine.

This has been a very interesting collaborative exercise, YouTube, unlike the other social media sources is much more visual which makes it a fantastic learning tool as students use both visual and audio skills to interpret the information in the presentation. YouTube has the unenviable reputation of containing uncensored, amateur footage of silly antics and raunchy music videos but once you get past the rubbish YouTube can be a fantastic learning tool within the classroom.

I am much wiser after researching what YouTube is about and what it can bring into the classroom, and have learned much about other forms of social media from which the other group members have researched and added to their blog. I hope to use my new found knowledge and the knowledge within the classroom environment in an effort to engage students and encourage them on the path to lifelong learning. I hope you enjoyed making your way around this blog and that it has enlightened our outlook on using social media as a learning tool in your classroom.

Thank your for participating, Kim.

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Hi ladies.
You have done a fantastic job in providing a lot of information. However as I wasn’t sure of the main topic or issue you were aiming towards. There was great information and a lot of reading but you guys did a great job in explaining the use of different web2.0 tools. I have thought about different ways I could integrate these tools into my classroom one day.
Thank you

Thanks Amanda for your feedback. We wanted to bring into focus the fact that Social Media is just that – a way for people – all people – to connect with each other, share ideas, and interests. We also wanted to emphasise that Social Constructivism is a popular learning theory and pedagogical tool and that the combination of the two in the classroom, could lead to really engaging, innovative and truly collaborative learning experiences. Our students are so familiar with these media in their everyday lives, why shouldn’t we make use of that in the classroom?

We found lots of examples of this type of work going on in many classrooms, but also felt that there were a lot of opportunities that were being missed or ignored for many different reasons. We felt that exploring and explaining these four topics was a great way to get other pre-service teachers to really think about these media as a truly useful and valid professional pedagogical tools. Hopefully we will all consider using them!
Thanks
Christine McCann.

Hi Amanda
I am sorry you did not understand the main concept/question addressed in this event. I do believe we defined our topic of Bringing social media to the Classroom. Did you engage with all the activities in the event? Have you tried Twitter? Left a tweet? Did you add to our story? Did you try out the other activities on the other pages? In doing this you will gain the full experience and what we were aiming for you to gain from this event.
I hope that you return and engage in some of these and leave feedback on the blogs, wikis and Twitter as you go.

Social media is one area that is frown upon by educators and the main aim of this event was to showcase 4 forms of popular social media that can easily be incorporated into any classroom. We hoped that by engaging in the activities set in each page that you would see the usefulness of each and most importantly come up with you own ideas.

I too am also sorry that you were unable to understand what our event was about. Being one of the event organisers, I know we took great care to make explicit our event’s topic, through the title of our blog, as well as the inclusion of the page dedicated to social media. Even though we thought we had structured the blog in manner to scaffold our participants understandings about social media, from your comment we did not do this as successfully as we intended too. This is something that we can take away with and improve on in the future. Thanks again for your participation.

Well I personally could clearly see the main idea that you ladies were portraying through this event. I really enjoyed this event and learnt so much. There was a lot of information and the event did take me a while to complete but I am glad that I took the time because I have really come away feeling so much more confident in the importance and relevance of using social media in education. I now have a more in depth and wider range of strategies and teaching tools to use in my planning and teaching. Thankyou so much for all of your research, information, activities time and dedication to providing us with this vital concept.

Social media is around me in my personal life and it will now be apart of my teaching philosophy as well.
Thanks
Bec

Thanks for your feedback Bec. I must say that I was not really looking forward to this task when we started it – however – I have really had an “AHA’ moment. It has opened up an enormous area to explore that I had not experienced or was really aware of.

I have developed a deeper rather than superficial understanding of social media and have come to see it as a tool to be utilised.

I too thank you Bec. glad you enjoyed the experience. I know all the organizers have learnt much about social media also. we were not familiar with the topics we chosen. we have all come away from the event learning much and with some great tools to use either for our personal learning network or for our own social lives.

it is good to know that the work in firstly learning all the tools then researching there uses and then putting together in this event has been of benefit to its participants.
cheers
Michelle

Thank you for your OLE. I have learned things along the way, tried things, etc. Isn’t it amazing what some information can do, how it can change our thinking and our attitude! I believe there is a place in the classroom for social media – for teachers and students. It’s an effective way to communicate and discover information. I found the collaborative style of communication associated with social media easier than group assignments – far more succinct, for a start.

Thanks Bec for your comments. It just goes to show you how we all learn differently and interpret things differently as well.
Glad to hear as well, that you took your time to complete the activities and everything else, as you have come away with a greater understanding of social media application in the classroom. We had to limit ourselves with our event, as there is so much out there.

Our aim was to enlighten people how social media can be an effective teaching and learning tool, and glad that we have given you some ideas and thoughts about incorporating social media in your future practice.

Hi Jenny,
Thanks for your feedback and very glad you participated. I totally agree with your statements about the benefits of social media being based on their collaborative style.
Yes, group assignments can be long and tedious. We have certainly benefited from our use of social media in this case, it has made our OLE much easier to co-ordinate and create and has made the sharing of ideas and resources so much more manageable.
Cheers,
Christine.

Thanks very much for the event, especially the Twiducate website and the link to the 50 ways to use wikis as I found them very useful. I signed up to twitter and had a go but I’m still not a big fan of it. I find the character limit very limiting! It was also great to learn that youtube has a section for education as while I have used it for educational purposes before I did not know there was a section with filtered results that I could go to.

Michelle will be extremely happy that you have found the twitter page useful, as I agree with Michelle twitter does get a bad rap, but there is also good in it as well. Did you contribute to the story, as I am very interested to see what path it takes.

Thank you Group 6 for an interesting insight to the world of social media and the many diverse forms that are available. The many forms that are out there are sometimes a little overwhelming of how many things you can actually participate in, I know I only allow my children to choose one afternoon sport. I would be more inclined to access and use the likes of twitter and blogging but find that time does not permit.
It was interesting to view the online interview with teacher Scott Fields and his take on social media and the “hassle” of implementing it within the classroom.
Thank you for this online learning experience.

I so agree with you that the information out there is overwhelming. This is why it is important to teach students how to efficiently use the internet and what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behaviour

Thank you group 6 for the great job you’ve done in putting this event together.

I agree with the comments above about feeling overwhelmed by all the information that is out there! I want to learn more about the ICT tools that are out there to use in our classrooms so I have given myself the challenge of not feeling overwhelmed by it all but to learn one of them at a time. I do no need to know them all but I do need to know some that will benefit my students. I believe the most important thing is to keep on learning and not to become resistant to change. In this way we can change and model to our students that to be a 21st century learner we need to flexible, change, adjust and learn!

On behalf of Group 6 thank you for your comment. It is key to choose the social medias that you feel you could use in your classroom and your students gain from. It is not about knowing everything ( which is impossible) and continue our learning journey.
I think just showing our students we are open to using these and that yes they do apply to all areas of our lives not just our social ones. Just think you will probably learn from your students all the intricate things that you never thought existed!
cheers Michelle Irving

Hi Ana, I agree that it is a little overwhelming, anything new always is, but any knowledge you have gained from this and other events is another teaching tool in your collective teachers toolbox.

I think the trick is to try and use these tools in your personal life so it becomes second nature, thats why the students are so social media and ICT savvy, it will make it so much easier in the classroom context.